Microsoft announced new capabilities and the upcoming general availability of its cloud offering focused on sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.

The Sustainability Manager platform will be released in GA June 1, and includes new features tailored specifically to ESG data and reporting. The cloud giant claims organizations of any size using its sustainability cloud will be able to unify data intelligence, build a sustainable IT infrastructure, reduce the environmental impact of their operations, and improve the sustainability of value chains with increasingly automated data connections and actionable insights.

Microsoft initially announced its cloud sustainability offering last July. The cloud service connects to data sources in real time, increases the speed of data reporting, accurately counts carbon, and utilizes intelligent insights to help organizations take effective environmental action. Using this cloud service, enterprises will be able to report on IT greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that result from the cloud, devices, and applications. Data from various emissions sources can be compiled into one report for a comprehensive look at carbon emissions.

Collecting and connecting IoT sensor data from devices combined with cloud and edge services allows the platform to monitor and measure activities at scale, Microsoft CVP of Industry Alysa Taylor and CVP of Sustainability Elisabeth Brinton explained in a blog.

"This extensible Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solution centralizes previously disparate data in a common data format and offers organizations an increasingly comprehensive view into the emissions impact of their entire operations and value chain," they wrote.

The cloud service specifically addresses transparency and accountability throughout the supply chain from raw materials to product manufacturing to distribution. A data-first approach, like what Microsoft says its sustainability cloud offers, will help organizations maintain data integrity and the visibility needed to increase efficiencies, eliminate emissions, and design out waste using circular principles.

“We are bringing together capabilities across our cloud and creating an entirely new business process category to help every organization address this very urgent need,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at last year's Inspire event keynote.